Music at St Luke's

Singing at the main service each Sunday is accompanied by our small mixed choir who meet on Friday evenings for practice at 7.30pm. Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New and Mission Praise are our main sources of music. This changed in 2004 with a small number of new settings introduced so that there can eventually be more variety in the communion services.

Clive, our organist since March 2003 has move on to be organist at St Paul's, Newton Abbot and we are currently advertising for his replacement.

The Choir


Berry Churchill
Our latest recruit!

Most churches seem to be losing their choirs, but here at St Luke's we have decided to try to rebuild the choir. We are always able to gather a choir for special occasions - indeed at the licensing of Michael and Pauline we had a full choir and sang an anthem and mostly four-part harmony.

Please speak to Michael or Pauline if you might like to join our choir; reasons to join the choir:

  • It's good for your lungs - particularly important if you are sporty;

  • It de-stresses you - and don't we need that these days!

  • You will learn how to sing and hopefully in harmony too;

  • It's very rewarding.

 

The Organ

The mainstay of music support is the organ. It is a fine Walker Organ.

A general view of the pipe work as seen from the chancel

The console

Organ history 

The organ was built by Walker and installed in 1866. It has had a Compton's conversion to the electrical and later electronic switching system in around 1928. 

The organ will require new leathers in the bellows - they have shown signs of splitting and although patched there is a practical limit as to how much this patching can continue. A major job here costing in excess of £10,000 for which funds are being raised..

We welcome organists who would like to play this wonderful instrument.

Specification:

Swell
Double
Diapason
16		 Open
Diapason
8		 Stopped
Diapason
8		 Echo
Gamba
8		 Vox
Angelica
8		 Principal

4		 Mixture
III
 Horn

8		 Oboe

8		 Tremulant Swell
Sub-
Octave		 Swell
Unison
OFF		 Swell
Super
Octave		    
Pedals
Acoustic
Bass
32		 Open
Wood
16		 Sub-
Bass
16		 Bourdon

16		 Octave

8		 Flute

8		 Flute

4		 Flute

2		 Trombone

16		 Clarion

8		 Choir
to
Pedal		 Great
to
Pedal		 Swell
to
Pedal		    
Great
Double
Diapason
16		 Open
Diapason 1
8		 Open
Diapason 2
8		 Gedeckt

8		 Salicional

8		 Wald
Flute
8		 Principal

4		 Flute

4		 Twelfth

2.2/3		 Fifteenth

2		 Mixture
IIII
IV		 Trumpet

8		 Swell-Sub
to
Great		 Swell
to
Great		 Swell Oct
to
Great
Choir
Gamba

8		 Violin

8		 Dulciana

8		 Stopped
Diapason
8		 Suabe
Flute
8		 Principal

4		 Flute

4		 Clarinet

4		 Trumpet
(not enc.)
8		 Clarion

4		 Choir
Sub-
Octave		 Choir
Octave		 Great
to
Choir		 Swell
to
Choir		  

Thumb & toe pistons

General
pistons		       pp 1 2 3 4 5 6 ff
Thumb pistons
to SWELL		   Trombone   Swell
to
Pedal		 1 2 3 4 5 6  
Thumb pistons
to GREAT		     Swell
to
Great		 Great
to
Pedal		 1 2 3 4 5 6  
Thumb pistons
to Choir		 Set Great
to
Choir		 Swell
to
Choir		 Choir
to
Pedal		 1 2 3 4 5 6 General
cancel
Foot pistons
rear		 Gt6
(missing)		 Gt5 Gt4 Gt3 Gt2 Gt1       Trombone  
Foot pistons
front		 Pedal +
Swell 6		 Pedal +
Swell 5		 Pedal +
Swell 4		 Pedal +
Swell 3		 Pedal +
Swell 2		 Pedal +
Swell 1		 Choir
pedal		 Swell
pedal		 Electronic
swell		 Great
to
Pedal		  

The 6 thumb pistons on the Swell & Great are double touch
The 6 thumb pistons on the Choir are NOT double touch

There is a pitch adjuster and several switches to isolate various departments in the event of a cipher.
There are 12 memories to set the organ up for different registrations.

The Come Together Group

We also have musicians who join us occasionally and we need both instruments and instrumentalists. 

If you have a talent please come forward...

Do you snore!!... or have a partner who does?

Try singing! Our soft pallet suffers muscle slackness like any other muscle as we grow older. Singing, especially over different ranges and vocal sounds, strengthens the pallet muscles and reduces the likelihood of snoring.

So come along regularly to church and have a good sing!...

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© St Luke's, Torquay
Mar 2008

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